Comparing Oh to Top Outfield and First Base HOF Candidates

In my analysis of Sadaharu Ohs
qualifications for the Hall of Fame, I referred to Bill James Keltner list and noted
it asked if the player under consideration was the very best player not in the Hall or was
the very best at his position not in the Hall.
I looked at the 3000 hit guys at all positions to answer the first
question, and consulted Win Shares, Total Baseball, and James last
two Historical Abstracts to determine who the best candidates among the first
basemen were. I did not in either
case formally compare the records of these players to Oh, though anyone reading
the analysis could have easily done so.
Ive thought about that, and have come up with another way to
determine the best candidates, and will formally compare those candidates
to the projected totals I have arrived at for Oh.

The method I will use to determine the strongest candidates for the
HOF is to take all those outfielders and first basemen who have finished
in the top 10 of the writers votes for the Hall but are not yet
enshrined. I am limiting the
field to outfielders and first basemen because thats the group which
faces the same offensive expectations as Oh does, since he played
first. The other positions have
significantly different offensive expectations because of the greater defensive
demands of those positions, and are misleading to compare to outfielders
and first basemen without incorporating defense into the
discussion. Since I lack the defensive data to do so for Oh, I cant
do that with any reasonable degree of accuracy.

The list of the top ten finishers among outfielders and first basemen
yields most if not all of the hot candidates under consideration
by the writers and the Veterans Committee who are not in their first
time on the writers ballots at those
positions. There are eleven
such players, and listed alphabetically, they
are: Dick Allen, Phil Cavaretta,
Andre Dawson, Steve Garvey, Gil Hodges, Roger Maris, Don Mattingly, Dale
Murphy, Tony Oliva, Dave Parker, and Jim
Rice. Phil Cavaretta is the
only one Id call a surprise, and frankly, Id be
very
surprised if
none
of these eleven players
ever
makes the Hall.

When we compare the Oh projection found
here
to these players, Oh beats all eleven of them in games,
at bats, hits, homers,
walks, on base percentage, runs created, runs created per game, and secondary
average. Hes second in
OPS to only Dick Allen, second by a mere 8 total bases to Andre Dawson and is a
solid 4th in slugging percentage. One of the remaining categories is triples and that category is not of
any real significance in evaluating
any of these
players. Other than that, hes
6th in doubles and tied for 8th in
average. None of the other hot candidates come close
to being as dominant in this group of quality
players. There can be no reasonable
argument that Oh is anything but the very best among this
group.